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Comcast vs Level 3: The Imminent End of the Internet As We Know It (or not) – Oh, and Movie Q

There was a great deal written about the Level 3 and Comcast fight today. Basically, it sounds to me like Comcast is pulling a Level 3 on Level 3. Level 3 seems upset that someone would think of their traffic as CDN traffic, which is odd (or not), as that is exactly the product they sold to Netflix.

Gigaom on the fracas. (The link to Vijay’s post on peering policies is a good read, btw, for those of you with questions about this concept).

Netflix streaming is working very well at my house, by the way. I’ve probably stopped renting DVDs, though my wife says she will still pick them up at Movie Q (which has killed our RedBox habit).

Movie Q only has 3 store front locations, but one is down the street from our place. Basically, it is a combination of Blockbuster and Redbox. Or, an unmanned ‘laundromat’ for DVD rentals, if you will, with the left 1/3 of the store being a giant ‘RedBox-like Robot’, with 9 renting kiosks, and a large single vending machine behind the wall. They display empty DVD cases on the other wall, in a bit of ‘Blockbuster’ marketing, to make it feel like an old line video store. This ‘Giant Redbot’ houses an entire BlockBuster type inventory, not just current releases; also, there is an onscreen quicktime preview of every movie in the machine. They charge $1 a night for a DVD, and $1.50 for Blu-Ray. Prices on games vary, depending on freshness, but are in that same range.

Of course, you can browse the store on-line, and they will email you receipts, etc. Oh, and they have traditional vending machines for soda, candy’s and microwave popcorn. I am hoping to get a look ‘behind the curtain’ some day, to see the inner workings of the vending bot.

The last time I was there, there was even an associate in the back, looking bored.